Graduate Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Experiences: A Phenomenological Inquiry

Healthcare reform and the complexities of the healthcare system and chronic disease conditions call for collaborative interdisciplinary team-based care. To enhance these collaborative efforts, universities and facilities are promoting the need for students and professionals to learn and work with others from different healthcare disciplines in an interprofessional manner. Four graduates of undergraduate programs in health sciences, nursing, radiologic sciences, and respiratory care sat for multi-series interviews using a phenomenological approach to share their experiences in interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Participant responses were grouped into themes around the development of a professional identity through personal, educational, and professional healthcare experiences; their role within the larger healthcare team and the dynamics of those relationships; and their focus on the patient at the center of care. The results indicate a need for interprofessional education at the undergraduate level in order to set an expectation of collaboration and provide opportunities for students to practice interpersonal skills with a variety of personalities through applied learning experiences that continue into the work setting through professional development. These participants recognized the need for many of the identified interprofessional collaborative practice competencies, particularly those concerning roles and responsibilities, communication, and teams and teamwork, and saw the benefit of collaboration on patient outcomes. This study also highlights the need for programs and institutions to consider the inclusion and role of non-clinical disciplines within the healthcare team. Sharing these experiences may contribute to interprofessional education and collaborative practice initiatives and future research efforts, providing insight into the graduate perspective

Learning from Degree-Seeking Older Adult Students in a University Library

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of library resources and services by degree-seeking older adult students (aged 50 years and over) and it is driven by the role of libraries in serving this often overlooked student population. Older adult students bring many benefits to the life of college campuses; nevertheless, many of these students also face challenges in meeting their information needs in academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach – The authors surveyed degree-seeking older adult students at a comprehensive metropolitan university in the western USA. Surveys were distributed to 579 students enrolled in the spring semester 2013, 134 students completed the 15-question online survey about the use of the library, information-seeking behaviors and use of other university services. Findings – The self-reported findings confirmed that the library meets most of the information needs of this student population. Students commented on satisfaction with the library services, barriers to using the library, areas in need of improvement and use of other university services. Research limitations/implications – Survey participants were gathered from one university and a corresponding sample size of 18-24-year-old students were not surveyed. More research is needed to demonstrate how this particular group varies from their traditional aged counterparts. Practical implications – This paper can be used as a starting point for future research into the information-seeking behaviors and needs of degree-seeking older adult students to develop greater understanding of this diverse population and their unique strengths and challenges. There is an absence in the literature on this demographic group in academic libraries. Originality/value – The article includes recommendations for further study and suggests outreach opportunities directed to older adult students that can also benefit the growing diversity of college students

Resolving Instructor Challenges in the Online Classroom

The rapid growth of online education has led to expanded opportunities for students while introducing instructors to new teaching challenges inherent to virtual learning environments. The practical responsibilities, once confined to the traditional classroom, such as handling student records, class size, teaching assistants, and instructional material now require a new mind set as well as sufficient technical knowledge. The online instructor faces additional opportunities and challenges once the class is online and students have enrolled. How to merge the best of the traditional classroom including teaching and practical responsibilities with the best of an online teaching opportunity become paramount to the online instructor. These issues and corresponding suggestions for the online instructor will be discussed in this paper

Strategies for Managing Large Online Classes

Online classroom instruction is an exciting technology and continues to draw the attention of students, instructors and administrators working or studying in educational settings. Large numbers of faculty are currently involved in teaching online or hybrid courses within their educational institutions. At the present time, very large online classes are usually defined as 150 students and above. Many instructors are now experimenting with making online learning options available to even larger audiences and online class sizes are increasing rapidly. This paper presents guidelines for managing large online courses. Among key elements important in meeting the needs of the distant learner through large online course design are: effective communication, use of teaching assistants and multiple sections, teaching techniques successful in large online sections and professional practice in the online classroom. This paper will discuss these elements and corresponding suggestions for the instructors of large to very large online courses

The Intersection of Preservice Teachers’ Confidence, Perceptions, and Ideas for Using Instructional Technology for Teaching and Learning

The evolving landscape of instructional technology is influenced by access to a wide range of technology tools that can be accessed to enhance teaching and learning. Technological tools such as smart phones, apps, tablets, social media, and YouTube exemplify the kinds of resources that are readily availabl e for teaching and learning. Further, the development of different course delivery systems and the exposure to concepts such as flipped classrooms and electronic portfolios have extended the use of mainstream technology into new instructional applications. The ongoing evolution of technology hardware, software, and instructional applications has numerous educational implications. In an effort to understand the implications of the evolving landscape of technology in education we examined the responses of 52 preservice teachers to determine their confidence with, perceptions of, and intentions for using instructional technology to teach and learn. Our research revealed a potential misalignment between the participants’ comfort, perceptions, and intentions for using technology for teaching and learning. Implications and ideas for further research are discussed

Recent advances in modeling and simulation of the exposure and response of tungsten to fusion energy conditions

Under the anticipated operating conditions for demonstration magnetic fusion reactors beyond ITER, structural and plasma-facing materials will be exposed to unprecedented conditions of irradiation, heat flux, and temperature. While such extreme environments remain inaccessible experimentally, computational modeling and simulation can provide qualitative and quantitative insights into materials response and complement the available experimental measurements with carefully validated predictions. For plasma-facing components such as the first wall and the divertor, tungsten (W) has been selected as the leading candidate material due to its superior high-temperature and irradiation properties, as well as for its low retention of implanted tritium. In this paper we provide a review of recent efforts in computational modeling of W both as a plasma-facing material exposed to He deposition as well as a bulk material subjected to fast neutron irradiation. We use a multiscale modeling approach-commonly used as the materials modeling paradigm-to define the outline of the paper and highlight recent advances using several classes of techniques and their interconnection. We highlight several of the most salient findings obtained via computational modeling and point out a number of remaining challenges and future research directions.Peer reviewe

ICD-10-CM/PCS: Transferring Knowledge from ICD-9-CM

The transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS has expanded educational opportunities for educators and trainers who are taking on the responsibility of training coders on the new system. Coding education currently faces multiple challenges in the areas of how to train the new workforce, what might be the most efficient method of providing that training, how much retraining of the current workforce with ICD-9-CM training will be required, and how to meet the national implementation deadline of 2014 in the most efficacious manner. This research sought to identify if there was a difference between a group of participants with no knowledge of ICD-9-CM and those with some knowledge of ICD-9-CM in scores on an ICD-10-CM/PCS quiz. Results indicate a difference, supporting the idea of knowledge transfer between the systems and providing additional insight into coding education

Electronic Health Record: The Impact on Public Health

New electronic technologies have transformed the way health information is being recorded, stored, retrieved, and analyzed. Health care professionals can now access information more easily than ever before, making the management of patient information more effective. These changes have created an information management infrastructure that is suitable for monitoring community health. Today, public health agencies at state and local levels are integrating information systems to monitor selected community health outcomes. This paper reviews the developments in electronic health record systems during the past 20 years and shows how these changes have affected the ability to better assess community health at the local and regional levels